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On the telecast it was pointed out that Budaj has now a 9-0-0 streak going in regular season.

Exactly how does a backup goalie accomplish this with the alleged brutal defense Montreal has?

Played against some really poor teams for most of the streak, Philly, Buffalo, Winnipeg and Florida. He still got us two wins against Boston, but the team was really hot back then and Boston didn't really get going until the end of the calendar.

Still a really good backup, a shame he was developed so poorly, could've probably been a top tier goalie.

Still a really good backup, a shame he was developed so poorly, could've probably been a top tier goalie.

Stupid question but with all the talk about the work Waite has been doing with Price, do any of the more knowledgeable folk know if Waite is also working with Budaj and what they might be working on? I think that it could only be a boon to the team knowing that our backup is also improving.

I dissed him after that Buffalo debacle last year, saying he was one of the worst goalies in the league or something like that. I was obviously bitter because we lost in a disgusting way, and I had to blame someone in particular for it.. I'm a Habs fan after all .. Well since then I'm eating crow big time, and I really appreciate what he's doing for this team. Plus he's a very nice person, it's very easy to root for him. So I'm sorry Peter, you're doing great.

Not only he is always ready for the challenges when asked to play but his attitude is so amazing, never complaining the way he is used, great personality and seems appreciated from everybody around the team.. On 24CH you see him joking all the times and have good chimestry with his teammates, unless he plans to try his chance as a starter when his contract expires, you have to re-sign this guy for some more years..

Spending the majority of your professional time preparing to play but not actually playing takes a very distinct skill set and mindset. In baseball, there's a whole culture behind relief-pitchers. Some of the weirdest and most-interesting characters in the sport made their living facing no more than a handful of batters a game. But unlike hockey, baseball has very few relievers who aspire to become starters. Relief-pitcher has become a distinct job description on its own and not a lower rung on the promotion ladder. In hockey it's trickier, because backup goalies are often ex-starters on the downslope of their careers or aspiring starters heading up. Unlike baseball, there's no prestige in being a backup. It's not a specialized niche, it's one step away from the real job. This season's backups include guys who have to crane their necks to see the heights they've fallen from, like Brodeur, Tim Thomas and Giguere, and guys who are looking at their prime and wondering WTF happened, like James Reimer. An NHL backup goalie is rarely a settled soul.

And then there's Budaj. What makes him so valuable is that he's one of the few solid backups who appears to have dug into the position and made it his own -- he's not upwardly mobile and he's not in decline. He seems to have a great rapport with Price -- you see the two chatting every time Price skates to the bench -- and he has the gift of being a great observer of the game during the majority spent watching from the bench. On a team like the Habs, where there's no debate over the starting goalie position, Peter has become our professional relief-pitcher, the guy who treats each of his limited appearances as A-Games, and not as auditions for something bigger.